Toomey, Van Hollen urge sanctions on indicted Russians

J.D. Prose

Wednesday

Jul 25, 2018 at 4:12 PMJul 25, 2018 at 4:16 PM

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey and a Democratic senator are pressing the U.S. Department of Treasury secretary to sanction the 12 Russian military intelligence officers indicted for cyber attacks on Democrats during the 2016 election.

In a letter to Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Toomey, R-Lehigh County, and U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., urged him to “swiftly impose sanctions” on the indicted Russian officers. The senators referred to previous actions by Treasury to sanction individuals, including an order in March blocking property rights of foreigners engaged in cyber attacks threatening national security.

That came in the wake of 13 Russians and three Russian groups indicted in February for interfering in the 2016 election.

“It is critical that the United States employ a comprehensive approach to confront and counter Russia’s malign behavior toward the United States, especially in order to defend the integrity of our elections,” Toomey and Van Hollen wrote.

President Donald Trump, in a press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin at their recent Helsinki summit, would not acknowledge Russia’s interference in U.S. elections but then backtracked a day later, saying he misspoke.

However, Trump has continually insisted “others” besides the Russians might have been involved in hacking activities that resulted in Democratic emails and computer files being stolen and distributed to the media. American intelligence agencies, though, have concluded that Russia was behind the orchestrated attacks.

Although Putin said in Helsinki that he wanted Trump to win, Trump has insisted Russia fears him. And Trump posted on Twitter earlier this week a warning that Russia might meddle in the upcoming midterm election to help Democrats.

In a joint statement released Wednesday, however, Toomey made a blunt assessment.

“Vladimir Putin and those acting at his direction meddled in our 2016 presidential election,” he said. “Russia’s attempts to undermine our elections should be continuously met with swift and strong repercussions by Congress and the White House.”

Van Hollen added that “there is no question that Russia attacked our elections in 2016.” He implored Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to “hold the Kremlin accountable.”

The senators ended their letter by saying, “We look forward to working with the administration to forcefully counter Russian aggression.”

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